The present invention relates to a multi-function card such as a smart card, usable by a consumer for one or more functions such as a debit card, credit card, medical card, insurance card, club card, check card, or a loyalty card for use in a customer loyalty programs, and in particular to such programs that allow users to earn, barter, trade, manage and/or redeem reward points and other types of value (such as reward points obtained from bank-issued credit card programs such as CITIBANK or airline frequent flyer programs such as DELTA) into a number of individual reward or access accounts and a reward exchange account stored on the multi-function card, for obtaining products and services in exchange for those points or other value. This would allow users to use their accumulated values such as frequent flyer reward points, which are stored on the multi-function card, for products or services. In particular, this invention provides a real-time interactive and portable platform for managing the user's individual and aggregated reward accounts on a portable multi-function card such as a smart card, and for storing and/or modifying user profile information on the smart card by an authorized merchant, system operator, or other entity.
Consumers in today's world typically carry many cards on their person, such as credit cards, debit cards, frequent shopper or loyalty cards, smart cards, access cards, identification cards, medical benefit cards, etc. Each of these cards allows the user to execute a commercial transaction as well known in the art. Carrying such a multitude of cards around is cumbersome, and many times the consumer does not have the card he may need for a specific purpose. In addition, having a multitude of cards leads to a fragmented system of commerce. That is, there is no easy way to tie together programs from various cards such that an activity executed with one card (such as a credit card purchase) provides a desired result with another disparate card (such as increasing loyalty points in a general account).
Loyalty programs implemented with a consumer card, such as frequent flyer programs, frequent shopper programs, and the like, award loyalty points to its users based on purchases of goods or services made under the program. A typical example is an airline frequent flyer program that awards one point for each mile traveled on the airline. In this case, a round trip ticket from New York to California would result in the customer getting approximately 6,000 points in his airline account. A purchase made at a drugstore might be discounted if a consumer produces his frequent shopper card for that store. Similarly, credit card issuers such as CITIBANK award points for each dollar spent using their card.
The prior art does not provide for a consumer to utilize relatively small amounts of reward points or other types of merchant-provided value. In addition, even if a consumer does have a large number of reward points in a given reward account, he or she often can only redeem those points in a manner related to the issuing entity (e.g. airline-issued reward points may only be used for a free ticket or upgrade from coach to first class). This prior art does not recognize the need for a consumer to exchange reward points for non-travel related goods, and in particular renders relatively small numbers of points useless. For example, a consumer that does not travel often may have 500 points in UNITED AIRLINES, 700 points in USAIR, and 1000 points in DELTA, each of which is relatively useless in the prior art.
What is desired therefore, is a system where users may pool or aggregate the various earned rewards or other types of value into an exchange account, where the resulting value of the combined reward points or other value may be used to acquire items otherwise unobtainable with the individual reward accounts.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,594,640, (“the '640 patent”) invented by the same inventor of the present application (and which is incorporated by reference herein), describes such a centralized reward points exchange system wherein a trading server computer executes trades of reward points from various reward points server computers into a reward point exchange account so that the aggregated reward points may be advantageously used for obtaining goods and services otherwise unobtainable. In addition to implementing a central server for storing reward point exchange accounts into which reward points are aggregated from various independent reward accounts as in the '640 patent, it is also desired to be able to track reward point accounts, both individual as well as aggregated reward points and other types of merchant-provided value, in a portable mechanism that may be carried by a user without reliance on a central server system, such as by using a self-contained storage device such as a multi-function smart card or a peripheral device. Smart cards implement processing circuitry, memory storage, input/output means, and user control means, in order to provide a user with a portable, hand-held solution as described herein.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a multi-function card that allows a user to use one or more of many available applications (such as credit card applications, debit card applications, check card applications, etc.) that are encoded or otherwise programmed on the card at any given time.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a loyalty program implemented on the multi-function card that tracks reward points and other types of values earned by the consumer in various reward accounts stored on the card and associated with the various applications executed by the card.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a reward exchange account on the multi-function card that allows the user to aggregate reward points or values into the exchange account from one or more of the individual reward accounts, thus allowing for increased purchasing power due to the aggregated reward points, on a portable mechanism that can be utilized without reliance on a central server system as in the '640 patent.